Author: David Ellis

(Pat suggested putting the class on YouTube. Kiran said he could do it. We might consider just recording Don’s preamble.) Jay: It has been suggested that the transformation promised in Revelation will be our return to the Oneness with god we had before the Fall. We’ve discussed the delayed timing of the Lazarus incident suggesting…

Jay: Jesus’s decisions concerning the death and resurrection of Lazarus seem different from the decisions he took in the rest of his ministry. A key verse in the story (John 11:4) tells us that when Jesus got the news that Lazarus was gravely ill, he told the disciples: “This sickness is not to end in…

Don: What died in the Garden of Eden was a spiritual death—separation from god, the destruction of Oneness with god. Scripture often describes physical death merely as “sleep”; it marks the end of our separation from god, the return to Oneness with him, and thus physical death is the end of spiritual death. The mystery…

Don: Before the Fall, Wo/Man was not just at one with god, but also at one with nature. Genesis 1:24: Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. This is borne out further in…

Don: In our discussion so far the message seems to be emerging that the way back to god through a true and faithful understanding of the god of our various religions may be a red herring; that the best way is in fact through a true and faithful understanding of our individual selves and of…

Don: As Isaiah indicated, we are light-years away from understanding god. What was lost in the Fall from the Garden was not simply the nearness of god. As Paul said in Acts 17:24-27: The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell…

Don: Today I am going to propose that perhaps the way back to god is not through discovery, revelation, or insight about god. The fact that there are so many different paths and revelations may be god’s way of teaching us that a religion that seeks or claims to penetrate the mind of god is…

Don: The fundamental questions of humankind are about Creation (Where did we come from?) Revelation (Where are we?) and Salvation (or Re-creation) (Where are we going?). Since the Creation was before our time, and Salvation/re-creation will be after our time, what we can “know” about them can only be through faith. Revelation, however, occurs in…

Don: If god is the god of all mankind, why are there so many different religions? So many different paths, so many different entry ways to the same god? Can they all be true? The religions are diverse in concept, practice, and beliefs. Their differences are often contradictory. Why would a god of all mankind…